Milan Iloski celebrates his goal in Game 1 of the playoff series against the Chicago Fire on Oct. 26 in Chester. Courtesy Philadelphia Union
For every 90 minutes that Milan Iloski has been on the soccer field this season, the Union forward is averaging 1.481 combined goals and assists.
It’s a number that puts him in rare company in MLS. Among the only occupants of that their is one Lionel Messi, who has accounted for 1.436 goals and assists per 90 minutes this season, in all competitions.
The contributions of Iloski and Messi diverge on aggregate. Messi has represented Inter Miami in five competitions, logging nearly 4,000 minutes, the equivalent of 43 games. Iloski, from his role as a super-sub in San Diego to a starting job with the Union, isn’t yet at 15 games worth of minutes.
But the numbers paint a portrait of efficiency that leaves Iloski nearly blushing.
“It's amazing,” he said last week. “I mean, that's pretty crazy. I should get that framed somewhere and put it in my house, maybe. For me, Messi is the best ever to do it. So to be in any conversation with him in any way, is pretty funny, to be honest. It’s a fantastic thing to hear.”
If the link appears odd now, imagine how it would’ve looked in 2022. Back then, Messi was ascending the Everest of his career, leading Argentina to a World Cup title. Iloski spent the year not just resuscitating his pro career but rediscovering his lost love for the sport, sharing an apartment and a squad with his brother while he contemplated moving on from soccer.
In the strange world of MLS, those two players could end up uniting on a field in Chester next week. First, the Union have Sunday’s Eastern Conference semifinal against New York City FC (7:30, FS1), with Miami taking on Cincinnati in the East’s other semifinal. A world exists where Iloski could line up in MLS Cup final on Dec. 6 in Chester against San Diego, the top-seeded team in the West for which Iloski scored 10 goals this season before it didn’t renew his loan deal, allowing the Union to sign him.
It would be the latest swerve for Iloski in a wild 2025 that has justified the faith he rekindled with his brother’s help back in 2022.
Family and soccer have always been intertwined for Iloski. His dad, Mike, played with the San Diego Sockers indoor pro team. Milan’s older brothers, Brian and Eric, all played professionally.
Milan used the challenge of being the younger brother to his advantage whenever he could.
“I always played up with Eric, a year or two years up,” he said. “And we always played in the backyard. My dad built us a little indoor court in the backyard, and we would always play on that. I was always the smallest and I had to fight maybe a little bit harder to not lose. And we're very competitive, so I think it definitely played a lot into what I am today.”
The brothers’ paths looked set to split as Milan neared college. Brian, four years older than Milan, was established at UCLA in 2016. Eric, a year older, and Milan joined Real Salt Lake’s residency program in Casa Grande, Arizona, that year. Milan’s hope was to go pro directly.
He didn’t anticipate ending up teammates with both brothers. Eric took a gap year for the residency, Milan’s natural senior year of high school. Brian had lost a year at UCLA to a sports hernia injury, allowing a fifth year. So come the fall of 2017, all three Iloskis lined up in Westwood.
“We had a blast,” Milan said. “We loved it. It definitely wasn't something we expected. Eric wasn't going to go to UCLA originally, and Brian was going to turn pro as a normal senior, then I was also going to turn pro out of high school. And then it kind of all fell into place.”
Brian had six goals and three assists in his final college season. Milan struggled to adapt and with injuries, tallying three goals and two assists, the same as he would put up as a sophomore. Among their warmest memories is the game-winner scored in overtime against San Diego State on Oct. 15, 2017: Eric’s only goal of the season, a blast from just outside the box, with assists by Milan and Brian. (As the scoring summary notes compiled by UCLA that day put it, “iloski to iloski to iloski”.)
It's a family thing. Iloski ➡️ Iloski ➡️ Iloski for the game winner and the @OpusBank #12Best Moment. pic.twitter.com/sgBFXp67wI
Brian was drafted in the fourth round, No. 72 overall, by Colorado in 2018, eschewing the Rapids’ interest by spending a year with Polish club Legia Warsaw. Eric played four seasons at UCLA and was selected by Vancouver with the 46th overall pick (Round 2) of the 2021 SuperDraft, landing in USL.
Milan entered UCLA expecting to stay one season. He needed three to generate sufficient pro interest. But in a breakout 2019 campaign, he compiled 17 goals and two assists in 16 games – including five goals against San Diego State in another rude hometown treatment from the Escondido native – to entice Salt Lake into extending a Homegrown deal.
But the high of college was a distant memory by the end of two seasons with RSL. He played a single MLS minute in each season. The 2020 campaign, thanks in part to COVID-19, was a lost year of development, stomached far from home in an apartment by himself.
RSL loaned him to Real Monarchs in 2021, where he got 18 games in USL, with five goals and three assists. But it didn’t align with the promises that lured him away from UCLA. He didn’t see a path forward with the first team. So when he was let go after the 2021 season, Iloski though it might well be at the end of his career.
“I didn't want to play anymore,” he said. “I was very upset with how everything went in Salt Lake. I left college early because I was told a lot of things, and none of it really was true. I pretty much didn't play soccer for two years, and I went through COVID and living alone for the first time, and maybe I wasn't ready to take that step. So for me, I think my taste for professional soccer was a really sour one.”
Loving soccer again meant proximity to family. Instead of looking for an MLS landing spot, he turned to Orange County SC in USL. Brian, at age 26, was entering his third season there. The roster included veterans like Cubo Torres and Michael Orozco.
Milan would have a familiar face and a roof over his head. He’d get a chance to play again, and with the person that most symbolized a sense of home on the field.
“I thought it was a good chance for me to play regular minutes and also be able to play with Brian,” Milan said. “He really pushed me to make that decision, and that was a great decision I made.”
The rest, now, kind of looks like history. Iloski scored 22 league goals in 2022, then 16 the next year. Orange County, with a history of modest player moves to Europe, transferred him to Danish club Nordsjaelland in 2024. San Diego, looking to fill out an expansion roster, brought him stateside on loan, which included 10 goals in 14 appearances, an astronomical return for 471 minutes.
When they couldn’t come to terms to renew his loan or strike a permanent deal, Iloski returned briefly to Denmark, then the Union swooped. The return has been two goals and five assists in 600 minutes to cap the Union’s Supporters’ Shield run, plus a goal in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal and a goal and two assists in the two-game sweep of Chicago in the first round of the playoffs.
Add it all up and Iloski has 14 goals and eight assists in 1,337 minutes this year, a Messian return.
He contributed primarily as a forward in San Diego and as a No. 10 with the Union, especially after the season-ending injury to Quinn Sullivan. He’s excelled with a San Diego team that ranked first in MLS in possession (61.1 percent) and a Union side that was 20th (48.2), systems as polar opposite in attacking philosophy as possible. That interoperability is particularly satisfying to Iloski.
“I think anytime you have a lot of quick success at a place like I had in San Diego, there's a lot of question marks and a lot of people maybe doubting it or thinking it's just for a short period or whatever,” he said. “But I think coming here and playing a different position, playing a different formation, a whole different way of playing and continuing that success … I think it shows my quality as a player. And also it shows that I've been at two really good clubs with really good players in them. So I'm grateful to both places.”
Iloski isn’t looking past the task at hand against New York City FC. But he’s thought about what a Union-San Diego final could be.
It’s a little like trying to go out and beat your brother between the lines.
“It's hard not to a little bit,” he said. “I have great relationships with a lot of guys over there. I spent time in Denmark with a couple of those guys there, and they really took me under their wing when I was in Denmark and did that first big transfer in my career. So it would be a little bit weird to be honest. But at the end of the day, I'm a Philadelphia player now.
“As much as I love those guys, I think it goes back to maybe being like the little brother growing up, and I want to beat him just like I want to beat my brothers whenever we play.”
